Irish Examiner view: Parties will now think through their by-election performance
Galway West provided a first by-election win for a governing party since 2014, while Dublin Central saw a breakthrough for the Social Democrats who celebrated the election of a second TD for the constituency. Picture: iStock
By-elections rarely, if ever, favour governing parties, simply because they invariably offer an opportunity for voters to voice their frustration about any number of issues on the day.
That being the case, the present administration will, after their regular post-election analysis, try to paint a pretty picture upon scenarios which do not necessarily lend themselves to such rosy summaries of events.
For Fine Gael, winning one of the two contested seats — Galway West — was a triumph facilitated by the ever-variable factor of vote transfers. On the other hand, losing a seat in Dublin Central in what was previously nailed-on territory for them will not sit well.
For the Social Democrats, winning that seat in Dublin Central was confirmation that the party is well positioned, even in times where the electorate is heavily fractured, to make further gains and perhaps even take a place in government after the next general election.
The story is rather different for two much bigger parties — Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin.
The former party’s leadership has always maintained that winning anything in these two contests was going to be difficult, but poor candidate choices and continued internal backsliding against Taoiseach Micheál Martin did not help matters.
That the overall outcome will not directly affect the Government’s ability to do its job will have eased the pressure on the Taoiseach.
It now seems certain Mr Martin will be able to choose the time and place of his departure from centre stage, whenever that may be, to suit himself.
For Sinn Féin, the results — and the failure of the party to gain at least one seat and particularly in Dublin Central, where party leader Mary Lou McDonald is a poll-topper — will be seen as a failure.
Again, there were criticisms of poor candidate selection, but, in Ms McDonald’s case, there is little, if any, hunger for leadership change.
That neither a crime boss nor any ultra-nationalist got the level of support they crave was a relief to everyone, and perhaps the only ones grieving the results today will be Independent Ireland, who failed in Galway West to capitalise on the support it generated during the recent fuel crisis protests.
Being hamstrung by the lack of any vote-sharing partnerships is something the nascent party will have to play closer attention to come the next general election.
We deserve this. Temperatures in the 20s, blue skies, bright sunshine, and warmth. People smiling, humour bright, skimpy clothing, beach picnics, swimming in azure waters.
Yes, we definitely deserve this.
After months of horizontal rain, black skies, flooding, deadly hailstone showers — even frost and snow — we have transformed into a summer wonderland practically overnight. We don’t know ourselves.
Instead of fleeing the inclemency for warmer climes, we can now simply walk out the door into a bright blue heaven we thought we’d never see again. And the weather forecasts are no longer things of brooding menace.
How long it will last? Well, in truth nobody really knows or cares. We’re going to relish these moments.
And yet, the summer bring its own perils — both on land and water.
Yesterday, the body of a young girl was taken from the waters around Burrow Beach near Sutton, Co Dublin, having gone missing while swimming and enjoying the good weather that has finally enveloped us.
It was a tragic and sad reminder of the importance of heeding water safety advice and will, undoubtedly, be one of many similar incidents recorded by coast guard authorities in the coming months. Hopefully, few of them will have the same outcome if people pay attention to the rules.
So too our roads, and especially those in rural Ireland where the highways and byways will teem with all manner of agricultural traffic as farmers try to make the most of the good spell to extract early harvests and collect the first cut of silage.
Added caution is going to be extremely necessary while traversing our roads in safety. As ever, caution should take precedence over haste.
Despite these necessary words of warning, the bottom line is that this glorious spell of weather has been a long time coming.
And we really do deserve it.
With the tourist season upon us, things inevitably emerge which give us pause for thought about how we present national monuments, beauty spots, and places of great interest to the millions of tourists who will spend time here in the coming months.
One such cause for concern that has been highlighted in the past days is the absence of any real parking facilities for one of our most storied historical sites.
The memorial site at Beal na Bláth in West Cork commemorates the place where, on August 22, 1922, one of our greatest national heroes, Michael Collins was shot dead by anti-Treaty forces in one of the most controversial incidents of the Civil War which followed our having gained independence.
It is a magnetic place for tourists, but it is also a dangerous one because the parking facilities — particularly for tour buses — are nearly non-existent.
While both local historians and coach operators want to see Collins-related tourism boosted throughout his native West Cork, they say the absence of parking spaces for both buses and cars at Beal na Bláth is hampering any such developments there.
They also maintain that the lack of visitor information at the site is hampering its appeal and they’ve called for digital content signs to be erected. Taking their thoughts on the matter one stage further, would a small visitors’ centre not also increase the location’s appeal?
As a starting point — and although Cork County Council carried out extensive work at the site prior to the centenary of Collins’ shooting — increasing parking facilities is a must.
It is a sad state of affairs that coach operators are avoiding a place that so many tourists want to visit, simply because they cannot park safely.
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